Intel last night forecast current-quarter revenue and profit below analysts' estimates and missed fourth-quarter sales estimates.
The company's performance was hit by a slowdown in China and sluggish demand for its data centre and modem chips.
The company's shares fell 6.7% in extended trading as the news further stoked fears of an industry slowdown.
This follows sales warnings from Apple, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor earlier this month pointed to stagnating smartphone demand and a cooling Chinese economy.
Intel said weaker demand from China hurt the company's data centre chip business, which has driven growth in recent years as PC sales have slowed and cloud-based services have become more popular.
In an interview, Intel's interim chief executive Bob Swan said data centre providers tend to make large purchases in spurts and then spend time "digesting" the chips as they build out their centres.
Sales in China fell because some buyers there - especially cloud computing vendors - seem to have bought chips earlier than usual last year because of fears about US-China trade tensions, Swan said.
US cloud computing vendors continued their usual buying patterns throughout the year, he added.
Intel's management said it expects data centre growth to pick up again.
For years, Intel had been insulated from swings in Apple's iPhone supply chain because it was not a major supplier.
But it was the sole provider in 2018 of iPhone modems, which connect phones to wireless data networks, and earlier this month, Apple cut its revenue forecast, citing weak demand in China.
Swan said Intel's modem business grew by 60% over last year but still came in about $200m below target.
The modem unit had "fantastic growth, but weaker than we expected ,and as a result that impacted our revenues for the quarter,"Swan said.
Intel forecast first-quarter revenue of $16 billion and adjusted earnings of 87 cents per share.
Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $17.35 billion and a profit of $1.01 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
